The city of blinding lights
Being an up-and-coming comedian in a place like New York City is a struggle. There’s a long, long food chain of people all waiting for their turn. Hours of standing on corners asking people to take flyers for a show full of shitty comics, or paying $5 to a booker just so you can get five minutes of stage time to work out material in front of an audience of other comics who don’t really want to hear you talk about Mike Tyson’s Punch Out because they’re waiting for their turn on the mic. It’s an arduous, almost soul-pummeling experience, to be certain; you’ve heard all the stories before. Continues after the jump »
New Kong trailer is king
The (presumably) final trailer for “King Kong” hit the Internets on Thursday, in glorious HD Quicktime.
I’ve got to say that I’m finally excited for “Kong.” Not that I wasn’t already planning to see it, but now I know that I’m willing to wait in line and maybe miss a few hours of work to be first in line. The teaser trailer never really did much for me. The dinosaurs were originally quite unimpressive, but it looks like Peter Jackson has been spending his time well. Kong has even gotten a makeover since the last trailer.
Another little bonus that I discovered today, that everybody else probably knew, is that Andy Serkis plays Kong. Sure, he “plays” the ape in the sense that he “played” Gollum, but you get the idea.
Go check out the dizzying number of sizes and formats for the trailer, along with the “A Look Inside” featurette.
Kevin Federline has a seriously distorted self image
Is it just me or does absolutely nobody envy Kevin Federline?
After listening to the single that his producer, Disco D, let slip out onto the Internet, I have to say that somehow, I envy him even less.
Kevin Federline has two jobs: Fetch Britney’s cigarettes and sit quietly while people make fun of him. That’s it. There’s really no more to it. It’s one of those situations where you really just need to accept it and try not to make things worse. It’s easy to hold the line in a situation like that. Nobody asks much of Kevin Federline. It could be worse. And now it is.
The worst part about this song isn’t the lack of talent. It’s the fact that nobody has told Kevin that he’s delusional.
Corrections to lies about Kevin Federline (In the 52 seconds of his song)
All these Pavoratti ain’t following him
Nobody’s asking him when’s the release date
Everybody can wait
Nobody calls him K-Fed, and nobody ever will
Nobody wishes they were in his position (see above)
Dirty is not a style, and he did not create it
He’s not starring in any magazines
Nobody had his name in they mouth
Only Britney’s change is increasing — and let’s be honest — most of this applies to her at this point too
The rest is true.
HUMOR ALERT: ‘The Colbert Report’ is lethal satire
- The Colbert Report
- Monday - Thursday @ 11:30 p.m. on Comedy Central
It’s not that I think that “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” is getting stale or anything, even though it peaked a few years ago. But I’m ready to declare “The Colbert Report” funnier already.
Maybe it’s because the “The Daily Show” has gotten too damn popular to be hip anymore, and I’m trying to be ahead of the pop culture curve by claiming its demise in the face of “The Colbert Report.”
One thing’s for sure: Stephen Colbert, who hosts “The Colbert Report” after a long run as the straight-faced reporter on “The Daily Show,” is a lot funnier than Jon Stewart, the host of “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.” There’s a reason why Stewart struggled in show biz before landing his current gig — he’s not very humorous on his own. Sure, give him good writing and a forum to display his above-average intelligence (as far as comics go) and you’ve got a successful formula. But have you ever laughed at his stand-up routines, or his forgettable movies? Continues after the jump »
Good news for ‘Good Night’
- Good Night, and Good Luck
- Director George Clooney delivers a timely and powerful reminder that we're not powerless, and ordinary men can challenge power.
We’re introduced to CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow at the beginning of “Good Night, and Good Luck” as the broadcaster is being honored in 1958 for his work over the years, particularly for his legendary fight against Sen. Joseph McCarthy. Upon taking the stage to accept the recognition which he is being given, Murrow, played authentically by David Strathairn, tells his story.
The state of television in the 1950s of “Good Night, and Good Luck” is eerily similar to that of today. Most programs do little but numb the mind, and keep the people from worrying. The news media is a toothless watchdog, afraid to upset advertisers and go against the corporate managers. The most terrifying prospect of all, however, is to be labeled a communist by Sen. McCarthy or one of his sycophants. Continues after the jump »
A lame NES knockoff? What are the chances?
Vintage Computing has a fairly in-depth thrashing of the Messiah Entertainment Generation NEX console. Turns out it’s a giant piece of crap. It doesn’t work with all of the games on their compatibility list, and the games it does work with have issues. Oh, but it does have 2.4 GHz wireless…for some reason.
I have to say I’m a little bummed on this. It would have been a fun little machine to have, since my NES crapped out on me like 10 years ago. I’ve never been a very big game collector though, and I only had like 12 games, so I wouldn’t have really missed out on much.
My advice? Just get a nice controller and stick to playing emulators on your computer like everyone else.
Update:
I’m a little relieved to see that Jake of 8Bit Joystick offers a more positive review.
I know a lot of gamers were really looking forward to this, so it’s good to see that there’s still hope.
Halloween … already?
Well, it’s the first Sunday in November, so you know what that means: Fox has seen fit to start the new season of the Simpsons!
I could go on and on about how lame it is that the Simpsons season starts in November. And I could rant all day about how dumb it is that we get the Treehouse of Horrors episode a week after Halloween. But really, who cares?
In all honesty, Fox was a bunch of swell sports in September to actually give us a few episodes of The Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad, and that lame show about the angry dad, slutty daughter, smart and obviously undersexed wife, and probably gay son. I think there might be another son who likes sports. I don’t remember what that show was called, but I do remember that it wasn’t funny, and it gives me a time to get my laundry before Family Guy starts.
I’ve got high hopes for the rest of this season. Last season was surprisingly good, so maybe we’ll get lucky and we’ll find that they’re on a roll.
Also, if you’ve never been to The Simpsons Web site, check it out. They’ve got a fun little game where you get to shoot zombie Shakespeare and zombie Flanders with a shotgun.
Getting in touch with MySpace
LCD Soundsystem’s song “Losing My Edge” pretty much says it all. Here I am just over five years removed from college and I feel like my grip is slipping on what is in and what’s out, what’s hip and what’s hop. (Do kids still say hop these days?) Even as I ironically mention a trendy band like LCD Soundsystem, I know there are some hipsters out there scoffing under their breath because LCD is so early 2005.
The most recent example of my fading cool self that I can point to is my total ignorance of the site MySpace.com prior to this past summer. It all started when I developed a crush on a contestant from UPN’s America’s Next Top Model. (Yes, I’m college educated and 27 years old and I’m having crushes on reality TV stars, and no I don’t have a girlfriend.) Her name was Kahlen, the coolest of cool girls (at least from I could take from a TV show), and through the message boards over on FansofRealityTV.com (again, no girlfriend) I discovered that Kahlen had a MySpace account.
Apparently a whole generation of kids is hooked on MySpace. My older brother, who teaches at a college, says it’s all his students talk about. That’s right, my older brother had heard about MySpace before me.
I’m definitely losing my edge. Continues after the jump »
Look out, Republicans, it’s The Boondocks!
- The Boondocks
- Huey, Riley and Granddad move to a small town. White people live there. Huey says things they find offensive. Funny/controversial stuff ensues.
- Sundays @ 11 p.m. on Cartoon Network
In case you’re not familiar with the daily comic strip, or you haven’t seen Adult Swim any time in the last four months, you might not be familiar with The Boondocks.
If you fit into this small segment of society, I’ll fill you in. The Boondocks is a political, yet consistently pretty funny daily strip focusing on the struggles of two black youths in a white man’s world.
With a decidedly lefty slant and no fear of taking on on hot political and cultural topics, the strip has found itself moved off the funny pages and into the editorial section of more than a few newspapers in the U.S. Continues after the jump »
Les Savy Fav - ‘No Sleeves’
- Inches
- Tightly knit collection of new school punk by Les Savy Fav with absolutely bizarre interludes and a surprising degree of polish.
- Buy it at insound!
This is a little bit of an experiment.
For months, I’ve had iTunes set to wake me up to a completely random song. I’ve got about 18,000 songs to choose from, and there’s certainly a lot of crap mixed in with all of the decent stuff. More often than not, however, I’ll find that iTunes is better at picking songs to wake to completely at random than I am when I’m trying to find something good.
I was already up at 5:50 today when iTunes kicked into gear, but I wasn’t let down today. “Inches” is a bit of fun new-punk from an album that’s more of the same. The song leads in with a heavy yet simple bass line that flows through the track. The soaring guitars give it almost a U2-like quality, without ever running the risk of being mistaken for U2.
The New York band’s sound is overwhelmingly punk without ever sounding sloppy. Sure, Sid Vicious would probably be spinning in his grave if he could hear this, but in today’s world of tight production, even indy labels can’t seem to let an album slip out the door without a certain degree of polish. Not that this is a bad thing; in fact it’s great. That extra bit of shine is what makes this such a listenable album. It’s light, yet punk — the kind of music that radio executives should be drooling over, but thankfully, for the sake of music fans, aren’t.
